London quintet WorldService Project came to the Star & Shadow in September 2011 in a double bill with Norwegian band SynKoke. Now they return with an extraordinary French group, Alfie Ryner.

Led by keyboardist Dave Morecroft, WorldService Project play a funk-infused jazz that's full of stop-start melodies, crunching drum & bass grooves, and sophisticated horn parts for the front line of alto sax and trombone. In the nine months since their last Tyneside appearance they've written a whole raft of new material, so this is a great chance to monitor their continuing development as one of the UK's edgiest young bands.

There's no doubt that WSP's ongoing 'Match & Fuse' series of collaborations with young European bands has been a great catalyst in their progress, and the link with Alfie Ryner is another important link in the chain. Based in Toulouse, AR take their name from a legendary (and probably non-existent) moustachioed trumpeter, and describe themselves as a quintet of musical agitators. Certainly there's plenty of agitation in their freewheeling music, which moves seamlessly from swing to punk, from groove to bolero, and from free improv to tarantella.

"They order this matter better in France," wrote the author Laurence Sterne. Well, maybe not better . . . but certainly differently!